The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-04-21
INTERSTATE COMMERCE. LAW.

y
seen. It certainly ia written neither t
oppose nor favor the law, but is simply
clear cut disquisition of the effects of tn
0 law, calculated upon known general re
suits, the drift of the business of tn
5 country and the natural impediments op
posed by the law to the continuance o
D certain business methods and procedure
A careful perusal of this article will repay
,, every one, but BRIEFLY stated, the south
ern interests affected, and about which
there is the most concern, can be sum
married. from the article as follow
Cotton, and all southern crops
in their eastern market, will be saddleC
with an increased freight charge, and
that such goods may have the same stand
ing as at present in these eastern mar
kets or those of foreign country, the
southern producer must lose the amount
of this extra freight And on the other
hand, the purchasing power
of the southerner's money is
reduced, as all manufactured eastern
goods on their arrival here will have added
to them the extra freight charges required
by this law. These are the two evil eff
fects of the law upon the south. To more
| than counterbalance these evils are found
several valuable advantages. Section one,
in the article on the general good results,
says there will follow "the encourage
ment of local manufacturing establish
ments. This will greatly stimulate south
ern and western manufactures, and in cor
responding degree depress eastern me-
sequent western movement of population.
While specific western interests will at first
suffer, the west, as whole, will no doubt
gain essentially by the diversihcation of
her industries"
This is n general result; but more spe-
officially it is stated at will tend also, in
another way, to build up the smaller
towns, rather than the great cities. Here
tofore the railroad has been, in a sense,
compelled to make itself the
enemy of the small towns along its route,
and the ally of the great city to which it
leads by the rivalry of trunk lines in re-
gard to through freight" And the article
contends that this rivalry, being stopped
1 A =, L., 4.
careful of their local traffic, as that will
pay them best, and that because of this
they will work in the future more
in the interests of these small
towns, and especially will this be so if
manufactures spring up in these towns.
The most recognized need of the south
is home manufactures, that her goods
may not be sent away thousands of miles
to be changed from the raw material into
merchantable goods, for which the south
must in time pay these middle men high
prices. And if this law accomplishes
nothing else but to divert the manufacto-
ries of the east to the west and south, and
scatters them through this vast producing
country, it will have done an immense
deal for the prosperity of these sections.
Nor will this work any lasting injury to
the manufacturers of the east. These
men taking in the situation, will scatter
their plant, leaving enough in the east to
consume all the eastern production, they
will bring the rest south and west and do
as valuable business as before. And
this would only be an equitable distribu-
ton of the monied interests of the coun-
try. Nature did not lavish the richest
soil and most luxuriant climate upon the
south and west, that the east might reap
really the greatest blessing from it. The
east has her New York, Philadelphia, Bos-
ton, Baltimore, Pittsburg and Cincinnati;
the north her Chicago; the south one big
city, New Orleans. 1t is not just that in
every way the vast stretch of territory from
the Atlantic to the Rocky mountains
should be tributary to few pampered
cities of the east. Much must go to these
cities to find its way to foreign ports, but
by far the most of the produce of this ter
ritory should be manufactured where it is
consumed-at home.
But these inestimable advantages to the
south and west are based on the ultimate
outcome of this law, granted it has passed
safely through its stages of trial and
shorn of its injustices, is adjusted to
serve the needs of the best interests of
the whole country. For the present the
danger is, lest in Il too stringent interpre-
tation of the law, unnecessary structures
may be placed upon the people, and that
only seeing injury and wrong in the wake
of the law they may demand its repeal be-
fore fair trial has been given it. Another
danger is, that it may be made to serious
ly interfere with our foreign commerce.
These two dangers provided against, we
see no reason this law cannot be built up
into the fostering guardian of the pros
perity of the whole country outlined in
the article to which we have referred.